Black Sand
by Sea Dahaka
Summary: All know of the Dahaka, know of his primitive bloodlust and his mission. But only a few know of his human side. And now the Prince has become his most dangerous target, and possibly his last.
1. Intro To Darkness

The forest was deathly silent. Very uncommon for when the sun was high in the sky.

No adventurers, no mammals, no birds, even the insects were gone.

The only thing heard was the wind rustling through the trees and the river running slowly past a stone temple. A temple that seemed deserted and abandoned by both mankind and time itself.

_CLUNK!_

A sound echoed from inside the temple, coming from a giant hourglass. One that was made of solid gold and was untouched by the vines over grown in the room, like they were trying to avoid it. A giant lever had slid down from its previous position. Soon after, all the gears and sprockets inside it started to move smoothly in perfect unison together. They moved for almost a minute until an opening formed in the bottom of the hourglass. The sand flowed out but started to fly around the room and then gathered in the center, creating a giant humanoid form.

"I live again… that means the day of reckoning has finnaly come…. My final target has moved into place…"

The black creature started to laugh, softly at first, but then got steadily louder until the entire area of the forest was echoing the evil sound.

There was a reason there was nothing had come to the forest….

Death had arrived


	2. Awakening

It was noon when the abandoned Temple of Time started to show signs of activity inside its walls. An hourglass in the ceremony room of temple started to glow. Then the sand inside turned a bright yellow. The golden hourglass inside was reacting to an unknown power. Nonetheless, the gears turned and opened the latch on the bottom of the magnificent piece of art. But rather than it's glowing contents flowing onto the floor, only a handful of unusually black sand fell out. After the black sand was on the ground, the latch returned to the closed position.

For a few hours, the black sand laid there on the cold, dark ground. It wasn't until the sun shone though the entrance of the temple and hit the black sand, immediately making the sand radiate a white aura around it. Then the sand moved. It moved into the middle of the room, a few feet away from the base of the hourglass and started to mix with the brown sand that lay on the floor all over. It too began to move as soon as the black sand washed over it. Now all the sand in the room started to swirl into the center where is started to form a giant pair of black, clawed feet. Muscular legs etched with grey scratches and gears then formed on top of the feet, joining as the torso was created. It held the same etchings as the legs, except for what looked like a giant grey plate over the heart. Then two equally muscular arms formed, ending with giant claws on the fingers. Finally, the armored head composed on top of the torso, with two great horns forming into an infinite symbol.

The dark creature stood in the middle of the temple room. The hourglass behind him and the exit in front of him. He sighed heavily and then opened his two glowing eyes to survey his surroundings. He looked around and looked at his own hands, then his body. A small chuckle escaped his mouth-less face.

"I'm finally awoken once again…. Born from the Sands of Time. And this time, my target is already known. I do not need to wait for _her_…."

The black behemoth started for the door, when there was a flash of light behind him. When he turned around, there was a slender woman leaning against the hourglass. "Awww, leaving without saying hello?"

"I do not need you help this time, Kaileena. Let me be."

She smiled and got off the hourglass. "Oh really? The great dahaka knows where he's heading without me even telling him whom he's hunting? Honestly Magus, your hopeless. You just don't know when to ask for help."

"I do too, it's just I don't need it now, have, and never will need it. I know the prey this time. Do you not understand?" There was an impatient tone to his voice.

Kaileena grinned and crossed her arms. "Then may I ask who the target is? Since you seem to be so confident I figure I might ask a few questions. I don't want you to go out there all vigilante style and killing whomever you think needs to die."

The giant creature gave off a low "hrumph" and walked over to her, having to look down to meet her eyes. "You know that I only kill those that have mistreated the innocent or opened the hourglass. Which is why I want to get this done as soon as possible. Prince Dastan has done nothing wrong in my eyes. He righted what was wrong. But the rules say that anyone that opens the sands of time from either of the hourglasses, they must die. Even if they return the Sands of Time to the hourglass. Even though only two people, including the prince, have done so, they still have died, or need to die."

The dark haired woman in red started to laugh. "Oh, so you're going to have trouble killing him then?"

"No, I never said that. His death will come swiftly and surely. It's just there's a lot more remorse for the target when he did nothing wrong. It's different when it's just some lowly bastard that opened the hourglass in hopes of riches, power, or immortality. Then they just run from the problem, leaving everything behind, everyone else to fend for themselves. That's when I feel proud of the job I've done."

"Right, I forgot about your code. I never expected that when I chose you to be the ultimate assassin, your personality would carry over; all I wanted was your fighting skills. But if you're going to do this your way, at least promise me that there will be no other bloodshed. I want you to try and control yourself, understand?" Her smile turned to a very concerned look.

The dahaka pointed a finger at her, not breaking his stare. "It was you who decided I needed the uncontrollable rage whenever I fight. The prey is not the only one that can piss me off."

"I just don't want you leveling an entire city because you thought the laws they had in place were wrong. You could have just killed the king but you had to kill everyone. Then I had to clean up the mess, making it so the city never existed. You know how much work it is cover something like you up from the humans?"

"I need no covering up, they have heard of me and they know what I do. You can't just expect them to…"

"Your suppose to be a legend." She cut him off quickly and her face turned to a stern look. "Your suppose to be a myth, something that doesn't exist. Even though there were no witnesses left at Giturasi, the city was going to get noticed sooner or later. I can't change the timeline. No one can. But I have to try my hardest to keep it in order. And your not helping, Magus."

This time he was the one to laugh. "Your treating me like a child. I know what I'm doing, at least until the rage kicks in. After that happens, I can't control what I do to the person I see as unjust. And since the entire city was unjust, there was no backing down; there was no telling myself that I shouldn't kill them all. Even the children would have grown to be evil if they stayed under the rules that were established. Even if I killed the royal family, the rules would have lived on…"

"This is why your locked up in-between quarry. You can't be controlled. If you were ever let to roam the earth, there would be chaos." Kaileena started to hint at being pissed with the tone she was using. "Look, if you know your 'prey', then go get him. Just don't try to kill everyone. And you really need to be careful with prince Dastan. He's an excellent fighter and if you go easy on him for fun or out of respect, you will regret it."

Magus turned his back to her and started for the exit. "There is only one sword in the world that can hurt me and it's safe on the island of time. And you also forget that I enjoy the fight. It does not mean I go easy on them, I just give them a fighting chance, no matter how small it may be."

The woman shook her head as she watched the dark giant walk though the oversized doorway. "His overconfidence will be his undoing…."

And with that, she disappeared in a flash of light, once again leaving the room empty except for the golden hourglass.

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**Wow, never would have thought i would get this story off the ground... hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave Reviews, thoughts, ideas, or whatever is on you mind. Thanks!**


	3. Power of the Sands

"Damn her…. Impeding my progress. I told her I want to get this done as fast as possible. Even though she may be the Empress of Time, she's still a bitch…"

The giant dark knight known as the Dahaka stepped outside the temple walls and moved his glowing eyes from left to right. He knew this part of the world all too well. The starting point of every journey. After every target was taken care of, he would return here and wait for the next one to be foolish enough to raise its head. Even though time did change some of the surroundings, the forest was almost never touched for there was no reason for anything to come near the temple. The wildlife knew to stay away, therefore no hunters would come. And adventurers or treasure seekers would not find anything interesting for the true hourglass that was his home was invisible to mortal eyes. Only the fool's hourglass could be seen and therefore have its contents released. Magus, the name that was given to him during his years as a mortal, knew the power of the sands and their destructive force. Even before becoming the Dahaka, the Sands of Time were released in his town. He closed his eyes and thought back to that fateful time…

The fool's hourglass was used as a statue in the town square, surrounded by a magnificent pool with fountains and marble pillars. One of the local merchants had acquired the Dagger of Time in a trade and had heard before that if you insert the dagger into the opening of the front of the hourglass, wondrous things would happen. He went straight to the king and told him of his newly found item along with his plan and hopes. The king was a fair man, who Magus happen to work for and gladly serve, and he consulted with his wise men and they too had heard of the legend. So the entire city made an event out of it. There were stalls and merchants from all over the large city, dancers and jesters performing for the crowds. All until the king arrived with the dagger. The people cheered and yelled, wondering what awaited them in their new world.

Then all hell broke loose…

Magus was watching the ceremony from one of the rooftops as those were his favorite places to survey the city. He watched all the people jump and cheer as the king moved to the hourglass. Then everything else happened so fast. As soon as the king put the dagger into the slot, the entire town square was filled with a flash of light as the hourglass glowed brightly. Then the bottom opened and the contents flowed out onto the ground and flew around the people. As the sand came in contact with their skin, it must have caused a burning sensation to a great magnitude for everyone the sand flew over started to scream and try to brush themselves off with no success. Then the transformation started. The peoples skin turned grey, their eyes glowed yellow like citrine gems, along with their stomachs radiating light like something was inside trying it's hardest to get out. Along with the outer transformation, they also stopped yelling and started growling and roaring at each other. They seem to still understand that everyone else was no threat, but they still were some sort of competition. For what, Magus didn't yet know. After the futile attempts to plead with the gods while watching each other become monsters, they all started to move out of the town square with the sand still flying.

Magus, being a quick thinker as well as a quick runner, turned and started to run across the roofs, jumping over the occasional gap. He decided the best course of action was to head for the city walls, but they were at least half a mile away. Whether or not he could run that far was no contest. But the question that ran through his head was could he outrun the mysterious sand? Never being the one to admit defeat early, he kept running as fast as he could.

As he ran, he could only hear chaos behind him, which lead him to the conclusion that looking back for any reason might not be the best idea. Besides, he was closing the gap fast and another problem arose. The rooftops were about three stories high and the walls were at least 30 feet away from the nearest canopy. He had to find a way down quickly or possibly face the same fate as everyone behind him. Luckily he knew there was a ladder in an alleyway to the right and quickly changed course. After almost falling off the edge from trying to stop, Magus grabbed the ladder and slid down. He tried to control his speed with his hands and feet, but fall was still too far. Hitting the ground hard, Magus fell backwards and happened to catch a glimpse of the entire scene behind him.

The entire city was now glowing a dusty yellow as the sun started to set. The sand seemed to make it to the other side of the city, probably hurting everyone in its huge radius. It would have been a beautiful sight if it were not for the people screaming and rolling on the ground. In the few seconds that he stared, a thousand questions ran through his head.

_What happened to the king?_

_How could that hourglass hold so much sand?_

_Who the hell thought this would be wondrous?!_

His thinking was quickly ended as the cloud of sand flew ever closer. Jumping to his feet, Magus ran to the main road and dashed for the exit to the city. As he ran, he yelled at people to head for the exit, hoping that they would listen to his warning and flee. No such luck. Everyone was too busy looking at the cloud of sand until it was too late.

Magus was never really scared in his adult life. He was worried numerous times, but never did he truly feel fear creep inside him telling him that he was going to die, or worse. This was one of those times. Even though his main goal was to get outside the walls, he was constantly thinking of the next step. Only problem was, he could not see one or figure one out. The land outside the walls was flat plain with no shelters or even rocks to dive behind. Being confused at what to do, Magus started to become angry, not at the sand, or the merchant, or even the king. But at himself. Angry that the city's greatest fighter, not to mention assassin, was going to fall to something so ridiculous.

Still not ready to give up, Magus dashed the final 70 feet to the exit. As soon as he made it past the wall he made a flying leap outside onto the grass. Looking back, he had no idea what the leap was for; all he knew was that he was outside the city walls. "Great, now I turn into a monster outside the city rather than inside it. Fantastic." But luckily the gods were on his side for the time being. As soon as the cloud reached the exit, it flowed up instead of out, almost like there was a barrier keeping it from leaving the city. Magus, still panting, grinned a little and then started to laugh to himself loudly. "Well, looks like I am one lucky son of bitch… it may be luck, but I'll take it."

And that's exactly what it was, luck, and nothing else. No one could have guessed that the sand wouldn't be permitted to leave the city. Magus realized that he was possibly the only one out of the city. But just to be safe, he would make a loop around the city walls to see if anyone else survived. In a few minutes. For the time being, he needed to rest, the adrenaline in his blood was all used running and was wiped out, for a lack of a better word.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to rest. His next obstacle was already walking towards him. With nothing but the intent to kill

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**A little background never hurt anyone. But how does he become the Dahaka? What is this obstacle that i had to mention? Why in the world is it considered cool to ask you so many questions that you don't know? I don't know, but feel free to review or leave me E-mails with suggestions or hate mail. **

**Sea Dahaka, signing out.**


	4. Magus's Time

"Fuck… seems that I'm the only one that made it out."

Magus was lost in thought while walking around the city walls, trying to figure out what the hell he could do. Even though sun was heading down on the newly ruined city, there were still signs of life inside the barrier. Well, signs of movement to say the least. He had yet to figure out if these things were alive or not, and for the time being, not having to encounter them was a good thing. "As long as they don't start coming out the….. oh shit."

Before he could even finish his sentence, up ahead was a group of three soldiers walking outside the walls. They walked slowly as if their balance was hindered because they were "infected". But it mattered not. Magus decided to head back the way he came.

That's when things went from bad to worse.

One of the guards on top of the wall had seen him and let out a guttural roar to alert the others of his presence. Immediately the three on level with him turned to see Magus crouched over, still in his sneaking position. "Shit! I'm running the other way. These guys should have a hard time keeping up with me." Even though his pride was telling him to fight, he would only use that as a last option. Even though they were changed, these creatures were still his comrades. Who knew? Maybe they wouldn't give chase.

No such luck. Immediately, all signs of disabled walking disappeared as the three started to run at him screaming, weapons drawn. "FUCK" was the only word that escaped his lips before he was already running back the other way. "Where the hell do I go? I don't want to leave town because the nearest city is three days away, but I can't go inside the city to get provisions either. Also, I don't want to lead them into the forest for the risk of them actually getting to another city." With that, Magus stopped running and turned around. "This ends here. I will kill them if I must, but I refuse to let them spread to anywhere else."

With that, he took a deep breath and drew his sword, a yataghan with slightly longer blade length. It was his favorite sword, mainly because his father passed it down to him when he became a soldier for the king. Now, nearly 25 years later and after many battles, the sword had become as easy to use as his own arm. He could predict anything that could and would happen after any scenario, whether it be cutting into flesh, hitting another sword, or simply bouncing off a shield. The minute it was in his hand, everyone against him was hopelessly out skilled. "Let's hope that stays true for this encounter"

With the three almost upon him, he held his sword at the ready and waited to see which one would get here first. It was the one in the center. Without even stopping, the soldier lunged his spear at Magus's chest, a move that was already expected. While smoothly stepping out of the way, Magus spun and dug his blade into the back of the monster, having it penetrate through his torso. The creature howled in what Magus hoped was pain as the two remaining swung their blades at the same time, one at level with his head, the other his abdomen. Quickly, Magus spun the skewered guard so he was facing the two oncoming blades like a shield. Both connected smoothly, but not with Magus. After all three blades were removed from the soldier in the center, he fell over sideways to the ground.

The other two soldiers paid no attention to their fallen brother, stepping over him as they slowly moved to opposite sides of Magus. Giving notice to the two's position, Magus stood so that his sides were each facing an opponent. He had been in this position many times before and there were only two options. The first is that one would attack, then the other. The second being both would attack at once. The latter being harder to dodge. But his luck had not run out quite yet. The soldier to his left swung vertically, and hit nothing but the ground. Taking the hint from his friends attack, the guard on the right lunged at Magus's head. Magus smoothly parried the second attack right into the face of his first attacker. While the first clawed at the sword that had found it's home in his nasal cavity, the other tried to pull the blade from it's vice. But before it could be done, Magus raised his sword and brought it down hard onto the second soldier's arm, severing it from his body.

Then, with one swift motion, Magus connected his foot with the hilt of the blade still in the monsters face, ripping it through his cranium. As soon as Magus's foot hit the ground, he reared back with his sword and swept it clean through the armless soldiers neck, having his head fly behind him. Both creatures hit the ground at the same time. Magus stepped back a few steps and sheathed his sword, not seeming to notice that the bodies littered around him were glowing brightly. All three corpses exploded into clouds of sand, which headed straight for Magus, covering his body.

The pain was incredible. As soon as it touched his skin, it seemed to dig into his body forcibly with the heat of ten suns. Magus screamed as he fell to his knees in pain and then onto all fours. It felt as if all the energy in him was being sucked away, only to be replaced with a great burning sensation that spread from the entry points of the sand until his entire body felt as if it was on fire. Now he could feel his stomach starting to feel like it was going to explode. With so much pain, Magus fell off his limbs onto the grass, only to see a pair of feet step in front of his face before he blacked out.

* * *

Magus awoke to a bright sun rising from the east with a woman in a red dress sitting next to him. "Well, it's about time you woke up, you've been out for three days. I thought I might have been too late. Wouldn't want to lose the main reason I'm here." she smiled at him and got up. When Magus tried to do the same, his body was shot with pain, only able to sit up.

"Who are you? And why the hell are you still here? Those monsters could have walked though those gates any…. time….." But when he looked at the direction of the city, there was nothing there except grass and a few patches of flowers.

"I had a hard time rearranging everything so that this city never existed, but that's what usually happens when it releases the Sands of Time. And I know your next question, no everyone did not die. They were simply moved so they never came here. Everyone from the founders, to the king, to the first citizens. Including your ancestors."

Magus was still trying to process everything. His home somehow disappeared, everyone he knew never came, and he was curious to know if he was even alive. "What do you want from me?" was the only thing that he could get out.

"Oh Magus, I don't want much…. just your skill. You see…"

"How do you know my name?" Magus quickly interrupted. "I've never seen you before… are you here to kill me?" He quickly reached for his sword, which was not there.

"Now now… there's no need to get all hasty. I know you because I know everyone in this world. I mean, I am the Empress of Time. I know all that has happened and all that will happen. And to be frank, I'm getting tired of having to clean up the mess of the sands every time they are opened. You saw what happened, they pretty much created hell on earth. Even though the sands are necessary to life itself, they are deadly if uncontrolled. Now listen, I want you to be my soldier throughout time and help me keep order."

"And what the hell makes you think that I'm going to help you? You just destroyed everything I knew! Everything that was dear to me! Plus, I think your crazy, this has to be a dream. There is no way in hell that my city just doesn't exist anymore and that my body was morphed by the sands the came off those creatures."

"Then look on your stomach Magus, and maybe you'll believe me…." The woman pointed to his lower torso, her smile quickly becoming serious.

Magus smiled at her, but then quickly got a horrified look on his face after he saw what was under his shirt. His body was glowing the same color as the monsters eyes. His reality was falling apart right in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it. "Does this mean I turn into one of them?" He tried to hide the fact that he was scared, but it obviously showed through.

The woman knelt down to him and showed a compassionate look on her face. "Look, I can't change the timeline, and your fate is intertwined with the sands. I thought I would try to save you and create something new with the sands starting with you. I'll leave the choice with you." She took out a small pouch and put it in his hand. "Either you can become one of them and suffer the rest of your life and for the rest of eternity, or you can take this sand, and put it on your stomach, negating the transformation into a pawn. But I don't know what will happen after that…."

Seeing he had no way out of this, he slowly opened the pouch and poured its contents onto his hand to examine it. The sand was black as night and it gave off an essence of power. Not knowing what else to do, Magus slowly poured the sand onto his stomach.

Immediately, the glowing started to fade, but the black sand started to flow over his body, sliding down until his legs were completely covered. It didn't hurt like the other sand, it was more just really cold, add on the fact that he seemed to feel himself getting stronger and he felt it was a good decision. The sand then started to move up creeping over his arms and neck until it covered his entire body.

Then, darkness again.

* * *

The Dahaka woke from his little trip down memory lane to realize that he was still in the forest from where he started. The prince was still his target, and he had a long way to go. "Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing…." And with that, he turned slightly to the left, and started walking.

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**well, there ya go, tried to make it so i wouldn't leave you with a cliffhanger. (i hate doing that) but you have to wonder, where is the path leading Magus? don't worry, the next one will be up soon enough.**

**Sea Dahaka, out**


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